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Seventh Annual Northwest Women's Pinball Championship at NWPAS Sponsored by 8-Bit Arcade and The Triple Knock.

Northwest Women's Pinball Championship at NWPAS, Past Champions:
2023: Jane Verwys (Chicago)
2022: Ren Logan (Seattle)
2019: Hannah Hatch (Seattle)
2018: Zo Vrabel (Portland)
2017: Alexa Philbeck (Seattle)
2016: Hannah Hatch (Seattle)

Babes in Pinland Special at NWPAS, Past Champions:
2015: Zo Vrabel (Portland)
2014: Julie Gray (Seattle)

Currently the IFPA has no guidelines on who is eligible for endorsed women's tournaments. Therefore, we have been working on our own Washington State eligibility guidelines. We have settled on taking as inclusive a path as possible. If you feel you fall under the umbrella of being a marginalized gender and accept that you will be classified as a woman by the IFPA, you are welcome to join IFPA-endorsed WA State Women's events.

Tournament Summary

Four Qualifying Rounds up to 24 players in each. Each round consists of a 5 rounds of group match play that will include 4-player and/or 3-player games on five different machines against varying opponents. Top 4 finishers will qualify to the TOP 16 finals. There will be online registration for these qualifying sessions, details on main page. Registration for each round remaining spots opens at time specified; closes 5 minutes before scheduled start time of round, or earlier if a round is full.

Qualifying, Round A: Friday 1:00pm-4:00pm. Registration opens Noon.
Qualifying, Round B: Friday 4:30pm-7:30pm. Registration opens 3:30pm.
Qualifying, Round C: Friday 8:00pm-11:00pm. Registration opens 7:00pm.
Qualifying, Round D: Saturday 11:30am-2:30pm. Registration opens 10:30am.

Entry

$25 to participate in one qualifying round. Up to one retry may be allowed on a very limited basis, as described here.
Preference for registering in all rounds will be given to players who have not yet competed in the Women tournament. Ten minutes prior to closing Round B, C or D, if there are any open spots remaining, then players who finish best in a prior round but failed to qualify will be given priority to rebuy for one of the remaining spots. Players must be present at tourney registration desk 10 minutes before round start if they want a chance at obtaining the rebuy.

Note that this championship is available to Women in addition to the other tournaments at NWPAS. Women are encouraged to participate in the Open tournament, Match Play Classic events and Revenge knockout, as well as the Rookie & Amateur event if eligible, for alternate chances at big cash and prizes. The schedule has been set up such that the Women's Championship final does not conflict with the finals in any other division.

Finals

Women's Championships Finals begin on Saturday at 3:00 PM, and players are required to check-in by 2:45 PM, or they forfeit their Finals spot.

Finals will be played using a modified "PAPA style" format. Finalists will be placed into groups of 4 players. They play 3 games. At the beginning of each round, the top seed in each group gets to the pick one of the available bank of 3 games (each bank consist of an OLD/MID/NEW machine). The group highest seed may elect to chose the bank for the round or position for game #1, if they chose position the next highest seed will have the same choices.
Their group will then play the machines in order as show for the bank. Player order for pins #2 and #3 are chosen in reverse finishing order from the prior pin. Once a particular bank has been chosen by a group for a round, that bank may not be selected by another group.
A player cannot select the same bank twice for the duration of the finals, until the player has selected all available banks.
If a pin has a catastrophic malfunction, then any groups assigned to that pin will reach out to a tournament director for a replacement machine. Final round tie-breakers are still settled with one full game played on the OLD game from the bank the group with tied player just played, higher seed player will have a choice of position.

Scoring is 4-2-1-0 for the four finishing positions. After 3 games, the top 2 players from each group advance.

In the event of a tie:
Ties to qualify for finals or for a bye in finals will be broken on a pin selected by tournament officials, while for seeding only will be broken through the highest number of higher scores for each players qualifying standings.

Prize Pool

$750 for the winner. All players that reach quarter finals will receive prize money of at least $50.
Trophy for 1st place with plaques for 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers.

Minimum prize guaranteed for 1st place, final value can be more.

Scoring and General Tournament Rules

Malfunctions and Rulings

Anytime an abnormal circumstance occurs, a tournament official should be notified. To ensure consistency throughout the tournament, PLAYERS SHOULD NOT RESOLVE ISSUES ON THEIR OWN. Except for customized rules explicitly covered on this website, PAPA/IFPA Tournament Rules will be used to address malfunctions and as the basis for rulings. Note also that any rule posted at the event, such as on the backglass of a machine, will override any rule described herein. The rules listed here are generalized for all NWPAS events, and might not apply to some specific formats.

Delay of Game: Due to the tight show schedule, delays due to players not being ready to play are problematic. When a new game is announced, players are expected to immediately proceed to their assigned machine. If a player has not shown up within one minute, please notify a tournament official, who will start a 2-minute timer. Players who have not arrived within 3 minutes of the start of a round may be given an official warning and have their balls plunged by a tournament official. Between balls, players are generally allowed 30 seconds to get to the machine and start their ball. Exceptions could be granted (e.g. player needed restroom; tournament official is involved in game and needed to make a ruling, technician at neighboring machine needs space, etc.), but these are generally expected to be occasional and the player would have informed the other competitors ahead of time of the need. No additional time is provided if previous player tilts, due to use of fast-settling tilt bob. If an opponent regularly takes longer than 30 seconds, please notify a tournament official. Tournament officials will monitor for delay of game. Tournament officials can provide warnings as well as plunging ball on first delay of game offense, and disqualification from game or tournament for repeated offenses.

Machine Setup Changes: Tournament officials reserve the right to modify any machine between games or between rounds, including changing of settings, tilt sensitivity, machine level, or any other adjustment that is deemed desirable to make the tournament run more smoothly and be more fair and fun. Since a player is only competing against the other players in the same game, all players will encounter such changes at the same time, and it is part of pinball to be able to quickly adjust to changing conditions of a machine.

Extra Balls: Extra balls will be disabled whenever possible at the main event, but likely will still be enabled in most satellite tournaments. Any extra ball is to be plunged, unless a note on the backglass says to play it. If an extra ball is to be plunged, then player may NOT touch flipper buttons to setup skill shot, then plunge ball in attempt to get the skill shot. The player may also choose to tilt the machine prior to plunging in lieu of skill shot and end-of-ball bonus, but a tilt anytime after a first plunge attempt will result in disqualification. Once ball is in motion the player must step back and cannot touch the machine, unless the ball returns back to plunger lane and is not auto-plunged, at which time they should plunge again. In the case that a player has a compensation ball awarded due to a major malfunction, and they earn an extra ball, they may choose to play the extra ball in lieu of the compensation ball in a new game.

Bonus Balls: A bonus ball is differentiated from an Extra Ball in that it is timed, and ends when the timer runs out. Space Shuttle and Medusa are examples of two machines with Bonus Balls. Bonus balls CAN be played.

Fast-Settling Tilt Bobs: In the NWPAS show tournaments, machines will be equipped with Fast-Settling Tilt Bobs when possible, using the ear-plug tilt hack, so that even sensitive machines tend to give only one danger warning after a strong nudge or save. With this mechanism, the tilt bob usually settles to a full stop within 15 to 20 seconds, and thus no need to wait longer between players when the prior player ended their ball by tilting. As a result, the delay-of-game rules don't allow for extended waits after a player tilts, as described next. This does not apply to satellite tournaments that are held on location, with most machines as-is.

Machine Availability: In case of machine unavailability, the maximum player count listed for a round could be reduced, or a backup machine from the Expo floor may be selected for use in lieu of the broken main bank machine.

Prize Pools: The advertised prize pools assume attendance on par with previous year, and are subject to reduction in case of major problems that reduce the number of available paid entries in any of the tournaments. This includes but not limited to COVID, power failures, natural disasters, weather-related closures, and significant technical issues.

Additional Information

Tournament Co-Directors: Germain Mariolle, Lonnie Langford, Ashley Weaver, Richie Terry & Max Stewart.
For questions and inquiries regarding tournaments at NWPAS, please contact contact@seattlepinballservices.com.

Back to Main Tournament Page.